806 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



bein^ much more rufescent than the back and like it streaked with 

 darker brown or blackish; in its lack of a perceptible superciliary 

 stripe; much paler buff}^ breast, sides, and flanks; white, or at most 

 only pale bufi'y lower tail-coverts; and buffy white instead of rufous 

 inner margins of the wing-quills. It probabh^ ranges over most if not 

 all of British East Africa. 



The adult of this species, which appears to have been hitherto 

 unknown, may be descril)ed as follows: 



Male, Cat. No. 8130, Carnegie Museum; Mombasa, British East 

 Africa, Septeml)er or October, 1900; William Doherty. Pileum and 

 cervix mummy brown, the feathers of the former with darker cen- 

 ters; back, scapulars, and rump hair brown, rufescent anteriorl}^ the 

 feathers, except on the rump, with dark brown shaft streaks; upper 

 tail-coverts mummy brown; tail bistre brown, the middle pair of 

 rectrices with an obsolete subterminal band of darker, the remaining 

 ones with more or less extensive grayish or bufly tips and blackish 

 subterminal bars; wings fuscous, the secondary coverts and tertials 

 broadly margined with hair brown, more rufescent on the greater 

 coverts; the primary coverts, primaries, and secondaries edged exter- 

 ternally with rufescent bistre brown; lores, a narrow eye ring, cheeks, 

 and auriculars buff, the last mixed with pale brownish; sides of neck 

 brown like the nape, but considerabl}- lighter; chin, middle of throat 

 and abdomen, with lower tail-coverts, creamy white; remainder of 

 under parts cream butf, deeper on sides and flanks; lining of wing 

 pale cream buff; inner margins of wing-quills dull bufly whitish. 



The inmiature bird, on which the original description of melano- 

 xantha was based, and of which there are two specimens in the Doherty 

 collection, differs from the adult in being almost uniformly pale 3'el- 

 lowish below, and more uniform dull rufescent or yellowish brown on 

 the upper parts, the pileum scarcely more rufescent than the back. 



Measurements of this species are given below. 



